Graphical method for the analysis of planetary gear trains

The main purpose of this paper is to propose a new graphical method for a planetary gear train (PGT) analysis. This is a fully graphical method that determines the rotational speeds of all transmission components, as well as the torque, power flow, power losses, and efficiency of any PGT. With this method, a sketcher workbench available in any modern computer-aided design (CAD) system can be used. This provides an interactive way to work. Both the construction of the geometric model and the interpretation of the results are intuitive, which facilitates error identification. Observing the impact of the selected input data or model parameters on the model behavior is extremely easy and can even be animated. It is believed that the presented method can streamline the PGT design process.